That's funny because Paramount/DW did schedule it for December 20 but then Hotel Transylvania circled the same date then Wreck-It Ralph followed. It's a case of them blinking first.

By the way, Sony just announced they have moved Hotel Transylvania to February 7, 2013. They saw those awful Rise of the Guardian numbers and thought better than to release it on an already crowded weekend with a horrible theme for Christmas. Of course, the new date isn't much better; it will be 5 months since the US release with a very packed weekend in store. (In the past few years, Chinese New Year has come bundled with just about every kind of movie thrown into theaters.) Instead of HT committing suicide, now it will just be standing at the edge of the cliff with 1 foot out.

I still believe even with competition RotG would have done much better over holidays because people are in that mood, but you know they blinked. It should have been WIR that should have moved instead but that is not going to happen.

Ok, so let's say Sony doesn't blink and RotG stays with Dec. 20. Just curious, where would you schedule WIR?

I would schedule it this weekend or the one before. WIR is the only movie of the lot without a holiday friendly theme which could have developed some legs before holidays.

November 22 Actuals

1. Life of Pi - $1,358,692 (weekend actual)
2. Cold War - $4,425,750
3. Skyfall - $4,459,298
4. Rise of the Guardians - $141,933 (weekend actual)
5. Love in Time - $101,934 (weekend actual)
Sinister - $42,580 (weekend actual)
The Words - $19,354 (weekend actual)
Chronicle of My Mother - $7,612 (weekend actual)

Strong start for Life of Pi. It built on its word of mouth and it culminated in a impressive increase on Sunday. This will easily pass 3m. Cold War fended off Pi and his cohorts just fine. 5m should be passed either this weekend or by the end of the week. Skyfall slowed down somewhat. Although it is still pulling in a fairly good sum, it won't make a whole lot more due to new openers this weekend. I say it will end with about 4.75m which would be a 60% increase from QoS. Rise of the Guardians had a good Saturday/Sunday to push it over $100,000 but it won't be enough to save it into week 2. 40% of theaters have already dumped this in favor of new releases. Love in Time couldn't grab the young couples crowd this weekend. Affected by the Life of Pi/Cold War combo, there wasn't much there for Love to steal from. Sinister, The Words and Chronicle of My Mother all opened fairly weak.

Thursday schedules

Broadway

Palace IFC
New	Holdovers	Leaving
I Have to Buy New Shoes - 5 showings	Life of Pi 3D - 6 showings (-)	Argo
Killing Them Softly - 5 showings	Chronicle of My Mother - 1 showing (▼ 4)	Monsieur Lazhar
	360 - 1 showing (-)
	Cold War - 4 showings (▼ 8)
	Skyfall - 5 showings (-)

Palace APM
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Jan Dara: The Beginning - 5 showings	Life of Pi - 3 showings (▼ 5)
	Life of Pi 3D - 9 showings (▲ 8)
	Love in Time - 4 showings (-)
	Sinister - 3 showings (▼ 4)
	Triad - 1 showing (▼ 2)
	Cold War - 10 showings (▼ 12)
	Skyfall - 4 showings (▼ 5)

Hollywood
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Jan Dara: The Beginning - 5 showings	Life of Pi - 5 showings (▼ 6)
	Life of Pi 3D - 7 showings (▲ 5)
	Love in Time - 3 showings (▼ 5)
	Rise of the Guardians (3D Can.) - 2 showings (▼ 5)
	Triad - 2 showings (-)
	Cold War - 6 showings (▼ 10)
	Skyfall - 3 showings (-)

The One
New	Holdovers	Leaving
I Have to Buy New Shoes - 5 showings	Life of Pi 3D - 8 showings (▲ 7)	Love in Time
Killing Them Softly - 5 showings	Argo - 1 showing (-)	Triad
Jan Dara: The Beginning - 3 showings	Cold War - 6 showings (▼ 12)	When A Wolf Falls in Love with A Sheep
Red Dawn - 3 showings	Skyfall - 2 showings (▼ 6)	Silent Hill: Revelation

UA

Langham Place
New	Holdovers	Leaving
House at the End of the Street - 4 showings	Life of Pi - 1 showing (-)
Red Dawn - 6 showings	Life of Pi 3D - 8 showings (▼ 9)
	Love in Time - 2 showings (▼ 4)
	Sinister - 3 showings (-)
	Rise of the Guardians (3D Can.) - 3 showings (▼ 4)
	Cold War - 8 showings (▼ 11)
	Skyfall - 3 showings (-)
	Triad - 4 showings (▼ 7)

Windsor Cinema
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Killing Them Softly - 3 showings	Life of Pi - 1 showing (▼ 2)	The Words
Happiness Never Comes Alone - 3 showings	Life of Pi 3D - 4 showings (▲ 3)
	Argo - 1 showing (-)
	Skyfall - 2 showings (-)
	Cold War - 3 showings (▼ 5)
	Triad - 1 showing (▼ 2)

Shatin
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Red Dawn - 2 showings	Life of Pi 3D - 6 showings (▲ 5)	Skyfall
	Cold War - 4 showings (▼ 5)	Triad

Cityplaza
New	Holdovers	Leaving
Killing Them Softly - 6 showings	Life of Pi - 1 showing (-)	The Words
Happiness Never Comes Alone - 5 showings	Life of Pi 3D - 7 showings (-)	Rise of the Guardians (3D Can.)
	Love in Time - 2 showings (▼ 3)	Triad
	Argo - 1 showing (▼ 2)
	Cold War - 6 showings (-)
	Skyfall - 2 showings (▼ 3)

A revolving door of openers this week. The new movies are mostly interchangeable films that theaters are adding to cover the low grossing films.

I don't see Jan Dara playing at any other theater chains besides Broadway/AMC so I think it is limited to those 2. Still that is a pretty good head start to have. Being a foreign language film and Category III film should bring in curious onlookers. Killing Them Softly should do reasonably well as a semi-wide release. The 2 arthouse theaters are supporting this in addition to The ONE, Pacific Place and iSQUARE as frontline theaters for foreigners/tourists. But it most likely will not be able to compete with Red Dawn, the smart money pick for the biggest OW amongst the new openers. It'll enjoy the comfort of having been picked up by the most theaters of any opener this week and the action movie should do well enough to sneak past Killing Them Softly. House on the End of the Street will do only light business despite being given a semi-wide release. Horror thrillers generally don't do well in HK especially when it's out of season.

The big story this week comes from Life of Pi. 1/4 of theaters are giving Pi more showtimes this week than last week. More than 50% of theaters have given more showings to Life of Pi 3D this week than last week. While some have cut 2D in favour of 3D, overall showtimes remain unaffected at most theaters. That will come in handy for Pi's 2nd weekend gross. Word of mouth remains strong and pre-sales have looked good so it is looking at another weekend above 1m.

To make room for new releases and Pi, Broadway has dropped Cold War down to 1 screen this week in most places. A couple of outliers have given this 2 screens at night which shows how well this movie has performed so far. Skyfall will hope to maintain another weekend in the top 3. Showings remain steady at numerous locations. Rise of the Guardians, Love in Time and Triad are the big losers this weekend. Argo remains relatively untouched but will not get night shows this week.

Might go and watch Skyfall and Killing Them Softly tomorrow. Hope both are playing at UA's iSquare.

Looks like a new cinema again for me; MCL Telford. I've passed this one a few times and even gone in, but never watched a movie there. So tomorrow I will watch two there. The times work out perfectly, and it's prety damn cheap too, only HK$55 and HK$65 for each.

It's HK$75 to watch Skyfall. They add a long running time surcharge to movies at least 2 hours, 20 minutes long.

Kinda annoying but I understand it.

I noticed that on their website, but they didn't mention how much it would cost exactly so I assumed it was the HK$65. Oh well, it seems that I am only going to watch Killing Me Softly now anyway because of a lack of money. Still going to try out MCL Telford though. I can catch Skyfall when it comes to China in January.

You can see how much it costs by buying tickets online. On the page where it asks the credit card info, they also give you the option of buying how many tickets and will tell you the price according to the age group you fit in.

Yes, I went back and checked. Skyfall is $75 at Telford.

If you're looking for cheaper theaters, Metro and Star (both MCL), Olympian City and Cityplaza are cheaper than Telford. Megabox is even cheaper (only $65 for Skyfall but Killing Them Softly isn't showing there).

Yeah, I did Megabox last time, so I wanted a change. Perhaps I could try Olympian City then, but isn't that UA? I'm pretty sure that's not cheaper than MCL Telford when I checked (for KMS).

Olympian is Broadway. It is cheaper than Telford. Skyfall is $70 there compared with $75 for Telford. Ooh, but KTS isn't showing at Olympian City. Nevermind.

I'll go to Telford tomorrow to see KTS, which will be HK$55 because it's at 11.40am, then next time when I go to watch The Last Stand in January, I will check out Olympian City - I've not done a Broadway one yet.

The Last Stand opens in HK on January 17, 2013.

	Thursday adm.	(so far)		November 29
Rank	Title	LW	TW	% chg
1	Life of Pi	6,634	5,676	-14.4%
2	Cold War	3,215	2,078	-35.4%
3	Killing Them Softly	--	704	--
4	Skyfall	1,026	606	-40.9%
5	Jan Dara: The Beginning	--	557	--

Superb for Pi. This is looking at another 1m weekend. Walk-ins the past few days have looked very strong. At least 66% of ticket sales for Life of Pi were walk-ins. Cold War has been defiant and has been holding on very well the past couple of weeks. It and Pi were the only 2 films in the top 5 from last week to increase from Monday's pre-sales. Killing Them Softly didn't round up moviegoers and it debuted with a tepid admissions count. Skyfall is hanging on. Walk-ins for Skyfall comprised more than 75% of its business the past few days. Jan Dara didn't do much either. It'll be passed by Red Dawn later today.

Yep. I can't wait. I was hoping to make it one trip, around Feb 1st, to see The Last Stand and Bullet to the Head in one day, but I feat that TLS may be gone by that time as I don't expect it to linger. Two trips will gaurantee that I see it. Also I have no clue yet when BTTH is actually being released.

Ticket prices for The Hobbit have been set and in 3D, one ticket is $30-$60 HKD more than a regular-priced 3D ticket.

For example, at Broadway's Palace IFC (the most expensive theater in HK),

Movies	Theater	Ticket Prices (HKD)	Ticket Prices (USD)
The Hobbit Avatar The Avengers Life of Pi (regular)	Palace IFC	$180 $150 $135 $120	$23 $19 $17.50 $15.50

there's a $4 difference from Avatar, $5.50 from Avengers and $7.50 difference from Life of Pi and regular 3D movies like Rise of the Guardians. At cheaper theaters, the difference is not as big but one ticket is still $2-$3 more expensive than a ticket to see The Avengers. Hobbit is seeing a $20-$35 HK increase at UA theaters. Not as outrageous but still a family of four would have to pay about $400.

But one thing that these crazy ticket prices means is that it ensures The Hobbit passes 10m. It should also become the #1 film of the year. Honestly, if The Hobbit doesn't beat The Avengers with these ticket prices, it will be a disappointment in my eyes. 15m is possible.

MCL Telford is pretty nice. The seats are soft and made from linen, so they are warm too. Unlike UA's iSquare, which has leather seats and I got cold on them. The prices are cheap at Telford too. The stadium seating isn't quite as steep as I'd like, but that's not a huge problem as I'm tall. Might go there again after I try a few more out. It certainly feels better than the MCL's on the mainland.

By the way, Bluebomb, as we have similar taste, stay away from Killing Them Softly, unless of course you loved The Assassination of Jesse James, then go and see it because you'll love it.

I don't like sitting on fabric seats. You can still feel the warmth from the last person to sit in the chair. And what's worse is if they smell, they'll leave a stench in the seat for the next person to sit in.

I have no interest in Killing Them Softly but that's good to know.


Last weekend became the biggest weekend in November ever, taking away the record from the Nov. 8 weekend this year. This weekend could hit 2m total, which would make it the first November month ever to have every weekend above 2m.

	Thursday				November 29
Rank	Title	LW (adm.)	TW (adm.)	Gross (USD)	% chg (adm.)
1	Life of Pi	19,713	16,077	$201,954	-18.4%
2	Cold War	14,927	8,999	$73,836	-39.7%
3	Red Dawn	--	3,203	$26,136	--
4	Killing Them Softly	--	2,504	$22,857	--
5	Skyfall	4,142	2,284	$23,722	-44.9%

Extremely strong for Life of Pi. This is now looking at a 1.1m weekend. Cold War is still performing not bad. Red Dawn snuck up to 3rd based on having more showtimes than all other releases besides Cold War/Life of Pi. Killing Them Softly turned in a good performance. It had half the showtimes of Red Dawn but it had more admissions per showing than any other film with the exception of Life of Pi. Skyfall didn't do that well. It should lose more showings this weekend to Life of Pi/Cold War.

	Friday adm.	(so far)			November 30
Rank	Title	LW	TW	% chg	QD % chg
1	Life of Pi	9,190	9,468	+3.0%	+66.8%
2	Cold War	6,816	3,515	-48.4%	+69.2%
3	Skyfall	2,308	990	-57.1%	+63.4%
4	Killing Them Softly	--	967	--	+37.4%
5	Red Dawn	--	800	--	--

WOW for Life of Pi. Incredible. Cold War and Skyfall both saw harsher drops. Killing Them Softly didn't have much of an increase. Better for Red Dawn.

Well luckily the last person to sit in my seat was over 12 hours before me because I went to an early Thursday morning showing so it had all night to get rid of the stench (if indeed he/she did smell). But seriously, in the Winter, leather seats are just unbearably cold. I need the material seats.

What's next on your radar to see?

Wreck-It Ralph. I'm eagerly anticipating it.

Was going to see The Hobbit but not at those extravagant prices. Maybe if there's a 2D version showing that's nearby I will go and see it.

Yeah, I want to see Wreck-It Ralph. It came out here in China, but because it's animation, it was 100% in Mandarin with no subtitles or anything. Animation is easier to dub. No US animation movie has come out here in its native language. Annoying. Looks like I might be seeing it in HK then.

They do that here too but at least they show the English version in 20% of the market here.

Life of Pi will fall less than 10% from last Friday.